Skip to main content

Learn HTML and CSS

Scrimba's free beginner anchor, taught by Per Borgen: about 5.7 hours that take you from your first tag to five real websites you build and deploy yourself.

Quick answer​

Learn HTML and CSS is Scrimba's free, beginner-level course: roughly 5.7 hours across six project modules and 120 lessons, taught by Per Borgen. You learn by building and deploying five websites, with 75+ coding challenges along the way. It assumes nothing. If you are new to web development, this is the single best place on the site to begin, and it is free.

Is it worth your time?​

It is free and it is the right first course, so the answer is an easy yes. The project-first structure is what sets it apart: instead of memorising tags in the abstract, you build and ship real pages from the very first module, which keeps motivation high and makes the concepts stick. For a complete beginner, editing the instructor's code in the browser and seeing the page change instantly is exactly the right way in.

The honest caveat is that it is genuinely a beginner course, not a comprehensive one. It gets you building and confident, but it does not go deep on responsive design, advanced layout, or the harder corners of CSS. That is fine; those come next. Just do not expect to finish this and be a complete CSS developer. Expect to finish it able to build and deploy real pages, which at this stage is exactly what you want.

What you'll learn​

Course curriculum

6 modules

  1. Build & Deploy Your First Website74 min
  2. Build a Google.com clone82 min
  3. Build a Digital Business Card72 min
  4. Build a Space Exploration Site44 min
  5. Build a Birthday GIFt Site99 min
  6. Solo Project: Hometown Homepage8 min

The structure is project after project, each adding skills you immediately use. You start by building and deploying a first site, which front-loads the satisfying part: something real, live on the web, in the first session. The Google clone and business card drill layout and styling, the space site adds structure and imagery, and the birthday site is the largest build. The course ends with a solo project, a hometown homepage you assemble yourself, which is where it stops holding your hand and checks that the skills landed.

Who it's for, and who should skip it​

It fits absolute beginners: people who have never written a line of HTML, who want to learn by building real things rather than watching slides. It is the natural anchor for anyone on the Frontend Developer Path and the obvious first stop for beginners.

There is almost no one who should skip it outright. If you already write HTML and CSS confidently, you can move past it to layout-focused courses like Learn Flexbox, Learn CSS Grid, or the deeper Learn Responsive Web Design.

Prerequisites​

None. You need a web browser and the willingness to type along. No prior programming, no setup, no maths.

Where it fits​

This is the foundation course on the Frontend Developer Path and the Fullstack Developer Path, and the recommended starting point for beginners. The natural next step is Learn JavaScript, after which the front-end work opens up.

Free or Pro​

The course is free, with no subscription required to start or finish it. Scrimba Pro is a separate decision: it unlocks the structured career paths, the challenges, the Discord, and certificates. If you only want this course, you never have to pay. See current plans if you later want the path structure around it.

Strengths and limits​

What it does well: it is free, it assumes nothing, and it gets a true beginner building and deploying real sites fast. The project-first design keeps you moving, and Per Borgen is a clear, patient instructor.

Where it is limited: it is a beginner course by design. Deep responsive layout, advanced CSS, and the harder topics come in later courses, not here.

Start Learn HTML and CSS for free (opens in a new tab)

Related Guides

Next step

All Courses

Docs
Last updated on